Use normalized Haar measure on the real torus. The integer matrix and its integer inverse induce a toral automorphism; its determinant one preserves . For , let . These characters of a real torus are an orthonormal basis, and
Suppose no eigenvalue of is a root of unity. For , the frequency can equal a fixed at most once. Otherwise two such times would give for some , forcing to be singular and an eigenvalue of to have th power one. Hence the displayed correlation eventually vanishes whenever a nonconstant character is involved. Constant characters give the product of their means.
Linearity gives mixing for finite Fourier series. To pass to arbitrary , approximate them by trigonometric polynomials. Composition with is an isometry of , so the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality bounds the approximation errors uniformly in . Let those errors tend to zero after taking the large- limit. Thus , which is the required mixing measure-preserving transformation property.
Conversely, if an eigenvalue is a root of unity, choose with . This is an integer matrix, so its nullspace has a nonzero rational vector; clearing denominators gives with . The nonconstant character has mean zero, but
for every . It cannot satisfy mixing. Therefore
Hyperbolic toral automorphisms are mixing, but hyperbolicity is not necessary: this proof excludes periodic integer frequencies, not every eigenvalue of modulus one.